Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at a Queens hospital, was the first person in the United States to be vaccinated. She wanted to “inspire people who look like me.”

When officials at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center asked for staff volunteers to be among the first to take the coronavirus vaccine, Sandra Lindsay raised her hand.

Because of lingering skepticism about the vaccine, even among some on her own staff, Ms. Lindsay, the director of critical care nursing, said she wanted to lead by example — particularly as a Black woman who understands the legacy of unequal and racist medical treatment and experimentation on people of color.

“That was the goal today,” she said in a phone interview on Monday. “Not to be the first one to take the vaccine, but to inspire people who look like me, who are skeptical in general about taking vaccines.”

Shortly after 9:20 a.m. on Monday, Ms. Lindsay, 52, became one of the most famous nurses in the United States when state officials said she was the first person in the country vaccinated for the coronavirus.

“It feels surreal,” she said. “It is a huge sense of relief for me, and hope.”